Yeah the blast radius option ("R" key) just shows white circles when shells are landing and smaller yellow circles where shrapnel hits. It slows down the bombardment considerably. It also shows the circles for machine gun fire and AT-guns etc... I never use it personaly. I guess it is just a graphical representation of how the game engine works for those really into that stuff.

This machine shows all the problems that some have noticed with "stuttering" in full-screen mode.

- Scrolling is jerky
- Clicking on the mini-map results in a noticeable delay before moving
- making a long multi-hex move with a vehicle, sound on especially, can result in a long delay, or movement in small batches with a delay in between. hex at a time is usually OK, though.
- Weapons effects not tested as yet, but may be also.
- Any attempt to ALT+TAB out and then return, and the game is in a skewed state and colour palette is also trashed, and can only be killed by CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the task manager.

I have eliminated the gameoptions options (setting scroll delay to 0 milliseconds and doubling the mouse scroll sensitivity zone) - makes no difference.

Exploring the Windows 8 compatibility mode settings made no difference whatsoever, though "Windows 98/Me mode" seemed slightly better. Especially on clicking the mini-map.
- Setting any compatibility setting brings up an annoying UAC message, even if you are the machine's admin with full privileges as well.
- The colour depth settings don't do that, but made absolutely no difference at all.

So I set the game up to fullscreen in gameoptions, exited game options, and launched the .cmd file directly (as we removed that if 8 is detected as folks have said its not needed). Exact same behaviour as before was noted, so the batch file is redundant in 8 (and it was Aero that was killing it before in Seven).

I also explored the video card options, e.g. turning its dual mode off and using standard, optimise for speed, etc. No change.

Since:
A) Some folks report that full-screen mode works perfectly OK for them
and
B) Others report the same stuff as how my machine behaves

Then the only variable there can be is the graphics card installed on the box as far as I can tell. And/or the drivers.

Some can hack it, others cannot.

And in the early days of Windows XP, this was a problem as well since many manufacturers had not got support for the old DOS video modes done right - they concentrated on windows. Sometimes a later set of drivers fixed it. This may turn out to be the same with Windows Eight.

HOWEVER
In desktop resolution in windowed mode, it runs like the proverbial brown and smelly stuff off a chrome digging implement. Not a hiccup, scrolls are smooth and fast, clicking on the minimap is instantaneous, no delay in unit movement or sounds. No palette scrambling if you minimise to the task bar or switch to other open windows.

You lose just a tiny strip for the task bar area (remember not to have auto-hide on!) but in 1080i mode - who cares. Additionally you can switch to other open windows easily, start new windows programmes, and see the clock, email notifications etc. All major pluses, along with the game working - there's no real need for exclusive full-screen at all really. Provided you have the full game and so can use your monitor's real estate.

Here is another Windows 8 tip or two, and it may be related to those video cards that mess up the full-screen mode 256 colour palette (as mine does).

I had noticed that the Firefox browser sometimes went "wonky" and pages were only rendered in black, with the occasional picture flashing on and off. Shutting the browser and restarting was the only cure.

However - a google on the problem brought up a cure - find the Firefox options for "use hardware acceleration if available" and turn that off.

Since I have done that the browser has been rendering pages just fine, and it has made no difference to watching catch-up TV (BBC iPlayer) in HD.

So - as with XP before it - it seems that it will take a year or 2 before everyone has produced video drivers (in both hardware and software) that will be fully compatible with Windows 8.

Probably related:
Also the only apparently useful Metro "App" of the cruft that was supplied, at least to me - was the weather one. However that also behaves rather like the Firefox pages - random icons appear on a blank screen, more if you "mouse over" where they should be. Again - likely to be video driver problems, even with the metro junk apps supplied by Microsoft. These (cr)apps seem to actually be a few lines to drive a browser page, they are not real programs, so that one is probably firing up Microsoft's explorer and its having the same rendering problems as firefox. probably if I bothered to fire up the Microsoft browser and turn hardware acceleration off as well, the app may work. But I only use IE for the updates page (which is tied to it) so I am not bothering to figure out its options.

So I've left the weather App installed on the Metro start screen as a test application for whenever I get some updated video drivers. If it starts behaving properly, then maybe SP will also work in full-screen mode!. It will then be deleted - as I refuse to use stuff that puts up *&!"$ advertising. (It was serving up a flashing Renault advert).

(cr)Apps use your bandwidth
Oh - also check the page on the task manager re Apps usage. The little darlings use up your bandwidth for the live tiles nonsense etc, as well as any served up adverts of course. This is even if you don't use them at all, but just visit the metro start screen. You can turn that off by right-clicking the beasties on the start page, and turning live tiles to off, or you can de-install them completely as an option from the same right-click. Some folks still pay for bandwith - especially on mobile devices. Such peeps should immediately strangle these "live tile" Metro apps ASAP, other than any that are actually useful.